Wrexham

Summary of Findings for the County Borough of Wrexham

Until now, Wales has lacked statistical evidence about the role of faith communities in the wider communities of which they are a part. The Gweini report, Faith in Wales: Counting for Communities,provides new information on the services provided by faith communities to the wider community, including: the numbers of volunteers they mobilise, the numbers of staff they pay to work with the wider community, the rooms and halls they make available, and their impact on tourism.

The survey on which it is based achieved an exceptional response rate of just over 49%, (around 45% for Wrexham), and this allows summaries to be made for each of the unitary authorities. Here are some of the highlights of the information available for Wrexham.

Â­Wrexham has over 120 active faith communities (individual congregations, or parishes in the case of the Church in Wales). Apart from one mosque, all faith communities identified in the survey are churches.

This represents roughly one church for no more than 1,100 people in Wrexham.

Every week, roughly 5.6% of the population of Wrexham is estimated to be present at a church service. However, this figure understates the numbers who attend over the course of a year. Taking the single largest service in each church over a year raises the figure to 10.7%. A considerably higher proportion that this must attend one or more religious services over the course of a year.

The range of serviceschurches provide in Wrexham is enormous, including many services governments are not well equipped to deliver. The top five are Social activities (lunch club, coffee bar, etc.); Children's work (under 14 year olds); Hospital visiting; Support for older people; and Youth work (14 - 25 year olds); in which the number of churches involved is estimated to be 56, 44, 39, 39 and 37, respectively.

In addition, a number of churches are already working in areas of emerging need and opportunity; around 4 churches are already working in at least one of the areas of employment training, alcohol and drug awareness, and personal finance issues and another 10 hope to work in these areas in the future.

Around 70% of the churches in Wrexham are active in one or other area of community services, with an average number of around five areas of activity each.

Around 1,200 volunteers are estimated to work on behalf of the wider community in activities organised by churches in Wrexham. This representsaround 2,600 hours a week, equivalent to around 65 full-time workers.

In addition, churches in Wrexham employ around 60 paid staff to work with the wider community, representing a further 480 hours a week, equivalent to 12 full-time workers.

Many churches provide accommodation for the wider community. In Wrexham, around 20 are estimated to operate purpose-built community centres; around 65 rent out rooms to outside groups; and around 50 supply some accommodation free of charge.

Churchesoffer support for the Welsh language: around 25 churches in Wrexham are estimated to be involved in running classes in Welsh, or to be involved in activities for Welsh speakers.

Using standard techniques, the economic benefit impact of just part of the services provided by churches to Wrexham can be estimated at £2.9M per year.

And, of course, this is onlypart of the impact of churches. For example, around 10 churches in Wrexham are estimated to be strongly involved in their local Community Strategy or to participate in Government regeneration strategies, or both.

Gweini: Evangelical Alliance Wales working with other Christian agencies in the nation. Evangelical Alliance is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales No 123448 Registered Charity No 212325